Radiopill

INTRODUCTION
➢Imagine a vitamin pill-sized camera that could
travel through your body taking pictures, helping
diagnose a problem which doctor previously
would have found only through surgery.

➢No longer is such technology the stuff of science

fiction films.
 Contd….
➢ Our body is a sensitive
system. At some situations,
doctors can’t easily detect
diseases. Use of Electronic
pill helps us to easily detect
the diseases.
➢ These capsules (electronic
pills) contains a sensor and
a tiny camera that collects
the information as they
travel through
gastrointestinal tract before
excreting from the body
within 2 or 3 days.
 Contd….
• Radio pill when swallowed, will travel the GI tract
(Gastrointestinal tract) and simultaneously perform
multiparameter in physiological analysis.

• After completing its mission it will come out of the human

body by normal bowel movement.

• The pill is 10mm in diameter and 30mm long weighing

around 5gm and records parameters like temperature, pH,
conductivity and dissolved oxygen in real time.

• The pill comprises an outer biocompatible capsule

encasing micro sensors, a control chip, radio transmitter
and two silver-oxide cells.
Contd….
➢These new electronic inventions transmit
information such as acidity, pressure and
temperature levels or images of the esophagus
and intestine to your computer for analysis.

➢Electronic pills are swallowable.

➢A small electronic pill can easily reach areas such

as small intestine and large intestine and can
deliver real time information to an external
system.
 Contd….
➢When Electronic pill moves through gastro-
intestinal track it starts to detect diseases and
abnormalities.

➢Total information will be displayed in a monitor.

➢The electronic pill travels to the digestive

system, collects data and sends it into the
computer with a distance of 1 meter.
PARTS OF RADIO PILL
➢The pill houses a PCB chip carrier that acts as a
common platform for attachment of,
➢sensors,
➢an ASIC chip,
➢a radio transmitter and
➢a power source (battery).
• Pill is covered by chemically resistant polyether-
terketone (PEEK) coating, which is
biocompatible.

• It is made up of two halves, which are joined

together by screwing.
HOW IT WORKS INSIDE THE
BODY
 Continue..

➢Visual based electronic pill consist of a

camera.

➢By using this camera entire picture can be

captured and it is send through a wireless
connection.

➢After diagnosis, the electronic pill can come

out through bowel movement.
 Task of the sensors
• The device is provided with four micro
sensors, namely
– a silicon diode,
– an ion-selective field effect transistor (ISFET),
– a pair of direct- -contact gold electrodes and
– a 3-electrode electrochemical cell.
 Silicon Diode
• The silicon diode is used to measure the body
core temperature

• Also compensates with the temperature

induced signal change in other sensors.

• Also identify local changes associated with

tissue inflammation and ulcers.
 ISFET
• It is used to measure pH.

• It is used to determine the presence of

pathological conditions
– associated with abnormal pH levels,
– particularly associated with pancreatic disease,
– hypertension,
– inflammatory bowel disease,
– the activity of fermenting bacteria,
– the level of acid excretion, reflux to the oesophagus
and
– the effect of GI-specific drugs on target organs.
 Direct contact gold electrode
• The pair of direct contact gold electrodes
measures conductivity by
– measuring the contents of water & salt
absorption.
– bile secretion and the breakdown of organic
components into charged colloids.
• As gold has the best conductivity among all
the elements, therefore it gives true value of
conductivity as measured.
• The conductivity circuit measures the
resistance across the electrode pair as an
inverse function of solution conductivity.
 3- electrode electrochemical cell
• The 3-electrode electrochemical cell is used to
detect the level of dissolved oxygen in solution.

• The oxygen sensor measures the oxygen gradient

from the proximal to the distal GI tract.

• This enables a variety of syndromes to be

investigated including the growth of aerobic
bacteria or bacterial infection.
 Control Chip
• The ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit)
is the control unit that connects together other
components of the microsystem as shown in the
figure below.
• It contains
– an analogue signal conditioning module operating the
sensors,
– 10-bit ADC and DAC converters and
– a digital data processing module.
– an oscillator provides the clock signal.
• The temperature circuitry biases the diode at
constant current so a change in temperature
reflects a corresponding change in diode voltage.

• The pH ISFET sensor is biased as a simple source

and drain follower at constant current with the
drain-source voltage changing with the threshold
voltage and pH.

• The conductivity circuit operates at direct

current, measuring the resistance across the
electrode pair as an inverse function of solution
conductivity.
• An incorporated potentiostat circuit operates the
amperometric oxygen sensor with a 10-bit DAC
controlling the working electrode potential with
respect to the reference.

• The analogue signals have a full-scale dynamic

range of 2.8V with the resolution determined by
the ADC.

• These are sequenced through a multiplexer prior

of being digitized by the ADC. The bandwidth for
each channel is limited by the sampling interval
of 0.2msec.
• The digital data processing module processes
the digitized signals through the use of a serial
bit stream data compression algorithm, which
decides when transmission is required by
comparing the most recent sample with the
previous sampled data.

• The digital module is clocked at 32KHz and

employs a sleep mode to conserve power from
the analogue module.
 Radio transmitter
• The size of the transmitter is 8x5x3mm. The
transmission range is one meter and the
modulation scheme frequency shift keying has
a data rate of 1 kbps.

• The transmitter is designed to operate at a

transmission frequency of 40.01 MHz at 200C
generating a signal of 10KHz bandwidth.
 Power Consumption
• Two SR44 Ag2O batteries are used, which provide
an operating time of more than 40 hours of the
microsystem.

• The power consumption of the system is around

12.1mW and current consumption is around
3.9mA at 3.1V supply.

• The ASIC and sensor consume 5.3mW

corresponding to 1.7mA of current and the free
running radio transmitter consumes 6.8mW at
2.2mA of current.
 Range of measurement
• The microsystem can measure,
– Temperature from 0 to 70oC,
– pH from 1 to 13,
– Dissolved oxygen up to 8.2mg/litre,
– Conductivity from 0.05 to 10 ms.cm-1
(s=siemens).
 USES
➢To detect disease infected areas or any other
abnormalities.

➢To measure the ease of passage.

➢To detect Crohn‘s Disease.

➢To measure muscle contraction

 ADVANTAGES

➢ Painless, no side effects.

➢ Miniature size so can move easily through the
digestive system.
➢ Accurate and low power consumption.
➢ Images taken are of very high quality.
➢ Made of bio compatible material.
 DRAWBACKS
➢Electronic pill is very expensive.

➢Not available in many countries.

➢Impossible to control Camera behavior.

➢Can’t detect radiation abnormalities.